Mikey Brown wrote:This Samoa performance might be the worst I've ever seen from any team.
How the fuck is MOTM not one of the flankers?
Strange choice for MOTM - dunno who selects it. I agree it should have been Bradbury or Ritchie. And well done to the team for starting with a degree of intensity this time round! It looked exhausting work.
The second penalty try along with a yellow was the correct decision. If you saw someone do that to one of your team-mates, you’d probably want to smack him. On the replay I think the Samoan even screamed “Haiiii-ya!” as he jumped in.
Mellsblue wrote:
I'd argue the contact had no bearing on losing the ball.
To take account of your edit.....he still ends up over the try line.
It doesn't matter where he ends up. It was an illegal tackle when the player is in the act of scoring. Being kneed in the ribs/back will impact everything after that. At the time he was fouled he was in full control of the ball and it was probable he was going to score. The fact he lost is after illegal contact doesn't mitigate the contact and punishment.
On replay, the second knee hits his ball carrying arm. There is no way that can ever not be a PT.
Job done. Would love them to have cut loose a bit in the second half and think they might have done if they'd scored earlier or someone other than the winger had been binned. Would still like to see more depth in our attack and some quicker ball but shake things a bit loose against Russia and then see what happens against Japan.
hugh_woatmeigh wrote:It was a bare minimum performance. Don't forget how utter shit the opposition were. They were dire and offered nothing.
It was, but there was a lot of pressure on a team we know to be mentally weak at times.
Not a lot more than job done but the important part that we got the job done. There still needs to be conversations about futures after the tournament but this keeps us in the tournament. Which we wont win but the objective is to stay in as long as possible.
I am willing to forgive a few errors in those conditions. It looked brutal. 4 tries and nilling Samoa is a very good performance. Repeat the trick v Russia and it’s on.
General Zod wrote:I am willing to forgive a few errors in those conditions. It looked brutal. 4 tries and nilling Samoa is a very good performance. Repeat the trick v Russia and it’s on.
There's 'a few errors' and then there's that. I know the conditions were horrible but that should surely make the number of blind passes thrown go down rather than up? I genuinely lost count of the number of times we flung it out of contact to nobody in particular. Same with Samoa making unforced errors either allowing us to score or to halt their own progress.
I agree that was the bare minimum, but there were at least some promising signs in there. Ritchie, Bradbury, Hogg, Graham were all class. Seemed like a good shift from McInally too. Not sure our lineout was flawless (?) but seemed solid.
We like to make things hard for ourselves but we got the job done. The backrow were epic. The forwards seemed much more up for it, the tackles and carrying were much harder than they've been for a long time.
One thing I'll say though - this should be the back row combination for all the "big" games going forward in this tournament. Play Barclay and Wilson against Russia.
Greig's passing though. Seriously. He looked really sharp in those opening 10 minutes, and I'm sure it's not a coincidence those were the 10 minutes our forwards were carrying hard at gaps, clearing defenders and presenting the ball. But the moment things slow down he is back to his stuttering, spluttering old self.
The conditions were bad and Russell seemed to be a bit distracted when taking some of these passes but so, so many of them were drifting all over the place. I really feel like he struggles to pass that far (without throwing it significantly higher) when we have Russell stood slightly wider outside a pod of forwards, yet we set up like that all the time. Once the ball is slow he just absolutely refuses to play it until everything has come to a complete halt and he's triple-checked everyone's positions. I can't bear it watching the forwards repeatedly start a run then get told to wait, back peddle, pause, lurch forward, stop, retreat again, then finally get given the ball along with a defender.
Someone mentioned Horne potentially making mistakes when he came on (and that he'd probably cancel them out anyway) but Laidlaw's issues don't go down as mistakes, it's just a continuous case of doing everything 30% slower or less accurately than is required. We scrape by, the ball generally reaches its target, so it's not called out but it fucking kills us in terms of momentum and getting on the front foot. I don't see how any amount of leadership of goal-kicking skill can be worth it.
Mikey Brown wrote:Greig's passing though. Seriously. He looked really sharp in those opening 10 minutes, and I'm sure it's not a coincidence those were the 10 minutes our forwards were carrying hard at gaps, clearing defenders and presenting the ball. But the moment things slow down he is back to his stuttering, spluttering old self.
The conditions were bad and Russell seemed to be a bit distracted when taking some of these passes but so, so many of them were drifting all over the place. I really feel like he struggles to pass that far (without throwing it significantly higher) when we have Russell stood slightly wider outside a pod of forwards, yet we set up like that all the time. Once the ball is slow he just absolutely refuses to play it until everything has come to a complete halt and he's triple-checked everyone's positions. I can't bear it watching the forwards repeatedly start a run then get told to wait, back peddle, pause, lurch forward, stop, retreat again, then finally get given the ball along with a defender.
Someone mentioned Horne potentially making mistakes when he came on (and that he'd probably cancel them out anyway) but Laidlaw's issues don't go down as mistakes, it's just a continuous case of doing everything 30% slower or less accurately than is required. We scrape by, the ball generally reaches its target, so it's not called out but it fucking kills us in terms of momentum and getting on the front foot. I don't see how any amount of leadership of goal-kicking skill can be worth it.
I had to laugh when he threw a pass above JG's head. The guy is 6'5"
hugh_woatmeigh wrote:Same goes for Cummings & Gray in the boiler room as well as Darcy on the wing.
I do worry/wonder whether Cummings is best used as an impact sub around 50min rather than starting. He offers real impetus off the bench and I am not sure he will have quite the same impact from the start.
Chunks Baws wrote:Will the full game be shown anywhere again? I watched it at work and missed some of it.
Could only watch the first 10 mins of the second half so was delighted to hear that your boys have got their World Cup back on the tracks.
Couldn't have asked more than a bp win. The Russkies next so same again please until the Japan game on the 13th.
Started doing a rundown of the individual players but quickly realised all my summaries were ‘mostly okay, but some handling errors and some lapses in concentration’. Seems remarkable we kept a clean sheet really.
So;
Loosehead - all depends on Dell. If he’s injured but not out of the tournament are we really happy to go carry on with Berghan covering LH? Do we give Berghan a start there v Russia? Thought Reid got on top in the scrum but fuck knows what was going on there really.
Gilchrist had some pretty shaky moments. I feel he’s generally a positive influence on the team but he is our set-piece guy and can’t have him biffing restarts like that. Really like Cummings but I think I agree retaining him on the bench to throw himself about for 30 minutes is the way for now. I’d give him a chance vs Russia to state a further case for starting though.
I’d like to see Thomson get a bit more heavily involved, but I feel the plan was to have him as the main second-wave carrier and we just messed up so often that we didn’t see that play out very often.
We’re stuck at 9 in all likelihood. Horne hasn’t been given enough serious test time and even if he runs riot v Russia it won’t matter to GT.
Russell, yeah stop it with the floaty passes unless someone is actually running on to it and able to take it in their stride.
Johnson/Harris seemed solid enough but that’s the most I could say. Not exactly exciting but how often did we really get any clean ball to Russell anyway. We really have no idea if either 13 contender can gel well with Johnson or not, so I’ll have to stick with the security of Harris I’m afraid.
Maitland took his try well and a high-ball or two but had some really poor moments. I’d bring Kinghorn and Tommy in for Russia to audition for his spot.
Not too many changes I’d make to the team really but we won’t get anywhere vs Japan being that sloppy.
Just watching the highlights, the thought that made me smile was watching the scrumhalf with zero physicality and zero running threat ride a couple of tackles and score a try from 25m out.
ARM wrote:Who else thought that Maitland had fcked our chance of the BP (and by extension progression) on first viewing?
I thought he had been unfairly knocked out of play and the ref would never give it as he had been pretty lenient with them. Watching it back, there’s a bad tackle on Thompson in the lead-up.
You lot are miserable aren't you! That was a bad Samoa side but we have never beaten them that comfortably and in conditions so in Scottish.
Think the four day turnaround is so tight that we basically have to avoid anyone starting both to the extent we can. Assuming we pick the same team v Japan, how about?
Reid (Berghan if Dell not fit)
Turner
Fagerson (Nel was very good today)
Toolis.
Cummings
Barclay
Brown (tough for a proper backrow to double up)
Wilson
Horne
Hastings
Seymour
Horne
Taylor
Graham (not sure we have much choice and he is young so should recover ok)
Kinghorn
Nel
McInally
Berghan
Gilchrist
Ritchie
Pyrgos
Russel/Harris maybe
Maitland
A bit of a risk but not much choice. Ideally want to beat them by at least 40 or so and I think we will be ok if it comes down to points difference (which is unlikely). Last night helped with that too.
Wouldn't be that surprised if Japan don't get a bonus point v Samoa which would make life much less complicated.
Dell played 10 minutes so he has to feature if fit - Reid must be knackered. He practically played 80 minutes with all that added time. Berghan covering LH may come into play here as well.
Dell
Turner
Fagerson
Toolis
Cummings
Wilson
Barclay
Bradbury
Horne
Hastings
Seymour
Horne
Taylor
Harris
Kinghorn
Berghan (covering both sides)
Brown
Nel (only coming on if there's an absolute emergency)
Gilchrist
Chib
Pyrgos
Johnson
Graham
F*ck, that's hard. Have tried to exclude anyone who's played two full games where possible. Maitland being excluded isn't really a sign that he's first choice but he's played 80 x 2 now.
